'Shadow Of The Tomb Raider' Fall Release Date Leaks, Is Not Xbox Exclusive

Paul Tassi
, ContributorNews and opinion about video games, technology and the internetOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Crystal Dynamics

Photo: Eidos

Eidos Montreal has put up a teaser site that promises a big announcement tomorrow morning. The problem? People have been inspecting the elements of the page, and uncovered just about every important piece of information that will likely be revealed tomorrow.

The game is Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which promises to be “the climactic finale of Lara’s origin story,” according to hidden text on the page. Also buried in the code are the game’s release date, September 14th, 2018, a larger reveal date, April 27th, and the platforms the game is coming to, Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

That last point is significant because Rise of the Tomb Raider was famously a timed Xbox exclusive after a deal with Microsoft to get the sequel made. We’ve seen less of those kinds of deals lately, and it appears one was not necessary this time around. I’m guessing Eidos Montreal didn’t want 80 million PS4 players to have to wait a year or more to play the game, so here we are.

September 14th means that Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be right in the thick of it when it comes to a crowded fall calendar. We already know that Call of Duty will release in mid October while Red Dead Redemption 2 is in late October. My guess would be that September 14th will be around the time that Bungie is releasing Destiny 2’s big fall expansion, as those usually fall within the first week or two of that month, not that the two games are all that competitive with one another.

Crystal Dynamics

The pending Tomb Raider announcement

Shadow of the Tomb Raider should prove to be the final Lara Croft game from Eidos Montreal/Crystal Dynamics for quite some time, if not permanently. You may recall that last year, Marvel announced a partnership with Crystal Dynamics to make multiple video games going forward. The first one will be The Avengers, made in tandem with Eidos Montreal. Marvel has kept the MCU out of the video game space, and the only real Marvel games on the market these days are mobile titles or souring partnerships like Marvel vs. Capcom. A Crystal Dynamics Avengers game has me hoping they can do what Rocksteady did for Batman in the Arkham series, though perhaps that’s a tall order.

I’m not sure what else will be revealed tomorrow about Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but hopefully we’ll see some footage, and won’t have to wait until April for that. Also of note is the fact that Alica Vikander’s Tomb Raider movie, based on the Crystal Dynamics games to some extent, will be released tomorrow, which I’m guessing is no coincidence with the timing of this announcement. Its initial reviews are middling, at best, as it currently has a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes (though only seven reviews are counted). Another video game movie destined to be mediocre, it seems.